The present invention is in the field of exterior aircraft lighting. In particular, the present invention relates to lights effecting the illumination of the vertical stabilizer at the tail of an aircraft. Such lights are sometimes also referred to as logo lights. The present invention also relates to aircraft comprising such aircraft vertical stabilizer illumination lights.
Large commercial aircraft have many different exterior lights. An exemplary group of exterior aircraft lights are lights for passive visibility, such as navigation lights and anti-collision lights. Another exemplary group of exterior aircraft lights are headlights that allow the pilots to view the area in front of them, when they are seated in the cockpit, such as taxi lights, take-off lights, landing lights, and runway turn-off lights. Yet another example of exterior aircraft lights are scan lights that allow the inspection of the aircraft structure in the dark, such as wing scan lights.
Illumination of vertical stabilizers of aircraft, generally present in the tail region of the aircraft, is known in the art. Illuminating aircraft vertical stabilizers is useful, among other things for notifying neighboring aircraft of the presence and location of the tail of the aircraft and for displaying airline logos. Lights for illuminating the vertical stabilizer at the tail of an aircraft have a number of purposes. They allow for inspection of the vertical stabilizer in the dark, such as during an operational check of the rudder. They provide an indication of the location of the aircraft in the dark, because the illuminated area is a good estimate of where the tail end of the aircraft is. They help in identifying aircraft during the approach or during taxiing on the air field, because the vertical stabilizer commonly contains an airline logo. For this reason, the aircraft vertical stabilizer illumination lights are often also referred to as logo lights. Previous approaches of aircraft vertical stabilizer illumination lights have not been entirely satisfactory. In particular, previous approaches of aircraft vertical stabilizer illumination lights had deficiencies in terms of output efficiency, i.e. light was wasted, in terms of largely non-uniform illumination of the vertical stabilizer, and/or in terms of large system complexity.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide an improved aircraft vertical stabilizer illumination light and an aircraft equipped therewith. In particular, it would be beneficial to provide an aircraft vertical stabilizer illumination light allowing for a good compromise between output efficiency, uniformity of illumination of the vertical stabilizer, and low system complexity.